The Canberra Stadium, known also as Bruce Stadium (For sponsorship reasons it is officially known as GIO Stadium Canberra, or simply GIO Stadium) is a facility primarily used for rugby league and rugby union games, located adjacent to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, the capital of Australia. The GIO Stadium Canberra is the largest sports venue by capacity in Canberra.

Also around this time, as an experiment, a cricket pitch was placed in the centre of the ground, and a day/night 1 day cricket match was played between 2 local teams before a small crowd. Regular cricket matches on the ground did not eventuate.

Further renovations occurred in 1997 in preparation for staging soccer matches as part of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, which also in turn shrank the size of the playing field preventing any future Australian rules football games being played on the field, the final cost of the renovations was more than seven times what was originally anticipated by the territory government of the time, and the subsequent controversy ended the career of then Chief Minister Kate Carnell. During the lead-up, on 28 May 2000, unseasonal snow fell during a match between the Raiders and the Wests Tigers, the only such event in National Rugby League history, with the snow causing frost damage to the turf intended for the Olympic football tournament.

Olympic soccer in 2000 has initiated a stadium facelift converting the playing surface from oval to rectangular and bringing the crowd closer to the action,[3] the only downside to this revamp is the stadium can no longer host AFL games. It is now an all-seater rectangular stadium with two main grandstands on either side of the playing field, as a result, all top-class cricket and Australian Rules football games in Canberra are now staged at the 15,000 capacity Manuka Oval.

In 2009 there was an A-Leaguebid from Canberra that, if successful would have seen a team play at the stadium starting with the 2010–11 season. However, the league chose to award second teams to Sydney Rovers FC (which dissolved due to financial issues) and Melbourne Heart FC.

Capacity is a nominal all-seated 25,011, the largest crowd being 28,753 for the 2004 Super 12 Final, the main grandstand is named after Canberra Raiders and Australian rugby league player Mal Meninga, and a statue of another Raiders and Australian league representative Laurie Daley adorns the main grandstand entrance.

Unveiling of the Gregan-Larkham stand at Canberra Stadium on 28 April 2007.

Whilst the stadium suits the needs of its two current primary tenants, as of 2017 it is the smallest Super Rugby stadium and only a medium-sized NRL venue, the stadium itself is approaching 35 years old, and despite modernizations over the years is lacking in certain amenities for fans – especially covered seating.

Additionally, Australia had bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and Canberra Stadium does not meet the necessary criterion to host matches, as such, the ACT Government launched a study examining the upgrading or replacing of Canberra Stadium, with options ranging from increasing capacity and enclosing the current facility, to completely re-configuring the current stadium to an oval for cricket and Australian rules football and building a state of the art rectangular facility next door.[5]

Citing costs of building multiple facilities as an issue, ACT Sports Minister Andrew Barr indicated his preference would be a 'super stadium' built with World Cup standard facilities and capacity, able to be reduced to approximately 30,000 seats after the event, such a facility would have to incorporate movable seating in order to accommodate all of the major Australian sporting codes.[6]

The official bid for the 2022 World Cup indicated that the 'super stadium' plan was unlikely and the original plan of a new rectangular stadium built next door to the current stadium, with the existing facility re-configured for oval field sports, was considered to be the likely outcome.[7]

After the failed world cup bid a new rectangular covered stadium was proposed for Canberra;[8] in 2013 the ACT government announced plans to build a 30,000 covered (with a roof similar to Forsyth Barr Stadium) rectangular stadium in the city on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin. It would be part of a 15-year significant redevelopment of the foreshore which extends the city to the Eastern Basin. Along with the stadium, as part of the redevelopment there would be apartments, a convention centre and an urban beach.[9] Plans to build a new stadium have, however, been put on hold indefinitely due to the need for funds to compensate local residents over an asbestos home insulation debacle.[10] Plans to construct the new stadium have since been pushed back by a decade.[10]

1.
Bruce, Australian Capital Territory
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Bruce is a suburb of the Belconnen district of Canberra, that is located within the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. The suburb was gazetted on 6 June 1968 in recognition of Viscount Stanley Melbourne Bruce, the eighth Prime Minister of Australia, on Census night 2011, Bruce had a population of 6,390 people. 37. 2% of the population was born, the eighth highest for any Canberra suburb. However, the area has seen residential development, with densities ranging from detached houses through to four storey apartment buildings. The 7 and 3 bus routes connect the suburb to Civic via Lyneham, Dickson, and Ainslie. Additionally, a number of cycle routes provide links to the Inner North, Belconnen Town Centre, for the purposes of Australian federal elections for the House of Representatives, Bruce is in the Fenner. For the purposes of Australian Capital Territory elections for the ACT Legislative Assembly, Bruce is dominated by the greywacke of the Ordovician Pittman Formation. Bands of the black Acton Shale Member are found under the University of Canberra, glebe Farm Adamellite is a coarse porphyritic micro adamellite of the Silurian age. It intrudes in the west north and southeast and southwest of University of Canberra, a triangle of Silurian age calcareous shale of the Canberra formation is in the north east of Bruce

2.
Australian Capital Territory
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The Australian Capital Territory is the federal district in the south east of Australia, enclaved within New South Wales. Its only city is Canberra, the city of Australia. The ACT also has a strip of territory around the southern end of the Beecroft Peninsula. The need for a territory was flagged by colonial delegates during the Federation conventions of the late 19th century. Section 125 of the Australian Constitution provided that, following Federation in 1901, the territory was transferred to the Commonwealth by the state of New South Wales in 1911, two years prior to the naming of Canberra as the national capital in 1913. The floral emblem of the ACT is the royal bluebell and the emblem is the gang-gang cockatoo. The economic activity of the Australian Capital Territory is heavily concentrated around Canberra and this trend continued into 2016, when the territory was ranked the third best performing out of all of Australias states and territories. There is a proportion of young adults in the region compared with other Australian states or territories. Approximately one-fifth of ACT residents were born outside of Australia, mainly in the United Kingdom, almost one-fifth speak a language other than English at home, the most common being Chinese. The ACT also has a strip of territory around the southern end of the Beecroft Peninsula. Apart from the city of Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory also contains agricultural land, small townships and communities located within the ACT include Williamsdale, Naas, Uriarra, Tharwa and Hall. There are a range of mountains, rivers and creeks in the Namadgi National Park. These include the Naas and Murrumbidgee Rivers, Canberra is noted for its warm to hot, dry summers, and cold winters with occasional fog and frequent frosts. Many of the mountains in the territorys south-west are snow-covered for at least part of the winter. Thunderstorms can occur between October and March, and annual rainfall is 623 mm, with rainfall highest in spring and summer, the highest maximum temperature recorded in the ACT was 42.8 °C at Acton on 11 January 1939. The lowest minimum temperature was −14.6 °C at Gudgenby on 11 July 1971, notable geological formations in the Australian Capital Territory include the Canberra Formation, the Pittman Formation, Black Mountain Sandstone and State Circle Shale. In the 1840s fossils of brachiopods and trilobites from the Silurian period were discovered at Woolshed Creek near Duntroon, at the time, these were the oldest fossils discovered in Australia, though this record has now been far surpassed. Other specific geological places of interest include the State Circle cutting, the oldest rocks in the ACT date from the Ordovician around 480 million years ago

3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation

4.
Australian Sports Commission
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The Australian Sports Commission is the Australian Governments statutory agency responsible for distributing funds and providing strategic guidance and leadership for sporting activity in Australia. From 18 September 2013, it is an agency of the Australian Government within the portfolio of Department of Health and it was at this time that the Government commissioned professor John Bloomfield to prepare a sports plan for the country. His report, The Role, Scope and Development of Recreation in Australia, was based on studies of sports institutes in Europe, Bloomfield suggested to the Government that it should establish a national institute of sport similar to those operating in European countries. Following receipt of the report, the Minister for Tourism and Recreation, Frank Stewart, the Coles Report was released in 1975 and recommended the establishment of the institute. Although the recommendation to establish the institute was made in 1975 and this uneasiness was caused over the Federation ignoring the Governments request to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games because of Russias invasion of Afghanistan. The Bloomfield and Coles reports, however, were not lost on Bob Ellicott, the plan would allow athletes to train and develop in Australia rather than be forced overseas. Ellicotts vision was received and on Australia Day,26 January 1981. Renowned swim coach, Don Talbot was appointed as the Institutes first Director, with the Institute established, the Commonwealth Government had begun its significant involvement in Australian sport. The Australian Labor Party in its 1983 election sport policy recommended the establishment of a commission to provide a more co-ordinated approach to sport. In 1984, an Interim Committee report recommended its establishment, the Australian Sports Commission was formally established by the Australian Sports Commission Act 1985. The ASCs roles and responsibilities are prescribed in the Australian Sports Commission Act 1989, the ASC attempts to promote an effective national sports system that offers improved participation in quality sports by all Australians. In addition, the ASC helps those who are talented and motivated to reach their potential excellence in sports performance, the ASC achieves these objectives by administering and funding national sporting programs on behalf of the Government and providing leadership, co-ordination and support for the sport sector. The ASC supports participation in sport, from grass roots participation to participation at the elite level, the structure has generally represented the areas of high performance sport, sports participation, sport management and corporate/commercial services. The AIS has been an elite sport flagship program of the ASC since its merger in 1989, the Australian Institute of Sport is the best known division of the ASC. The AIS offers more than 700 scholarships to talented junior and senior athletes, the institute also offers athletes access to coaching, sports science and sports medicine services, sports facilities, and opportunities for national and international competition, work and study. In 2011, Minister for Sport Mark Arbib announced the AIS would take responsibility for the direction of high performance sport in Australia. Sports funding, federal balancing act –Detailed summary of Australian Government funding and policies related to sport

5.
Seating capacity
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Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats hundreds of thousands of people. The International Fire Code, portions of which have adopted by many jurisdictions, is directed more towards the use of a facility than the construction. It specifies, For areas having fixed seating without dividing arms and it also requires that every public venue submit a detailed site plan to the local fire code official, including details of the means of egress, seating capacity, arrangement of the seating. Once safety considerations have been satisfied, determinations of seating capacity turn on the size of the venue. For sports venues, the decision on maximum seating capacity is determined by several factors, chief among these are the primary sports program and the size of the market area. Seating capacity of venues also plays a role in what media they are able to provide, in contracting to permit performers to use a theatre or other performing space, the seating capacity of the performance facility must be disclosed. Seating capacity may influence the kind of contract to be used, the seating capacity must also be disclosed to the copyright owner in seeking a license for the copyrighted work to be performed in that venue. Venues that may be leased for private functions such as ballrooms and auditoriums generally advertise their seating capacity, seating capacity is also an important consideration in the construction and use of sports venues such as stadiums and arenas. The seating capacity for restaurants is reported as covers, a restaurant that can seat 99 is said to have 99 covers, seating capacity differs from total capacity, which describes the total number of people who can fit in a venue or in a vehicle either sitting or standing. Use of the term public capacity indicates that a venue is allowed to more people than it can actually seat. Again, the total number of people can refer to either the physical space available or limitations set by law

6.
Crusaders (rugby union)
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The Crusaders are a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Christchurch that competes in the Super Rugby competition. They are the most successful team in Super Rugby history with seven titles, the franchise represents the Buller, Canterbury, Mid-Canterbury, South Canterbury, Tasman and West Coast provincial Rugby Unions. Their main home ground is AMI Stadium, formerly known as Jade Stadium and before that, formed in 1996 to represent the upper South Island of New Zealand in the Super 12, the Crusaders struggled in their first season and finished last. Their performance improved in 1997 and the team finished sixth, the team went on to win all three titles from 1998 to 2000 despite each final being played away from home. They again won the competition in 2002 after going through the season unbeaten, in the following two seasons, they again reached the final, although they were beaten on both occasions. 2005 was the last season of the Super 12 before its expansion, after finishing top of the table in that season, the Crusaders went on to host the final in which they defeated the Waratahs. As a result of winning their fifth Super 12 title, the Crusaders were given the trophy to keep, in 2006, the Crusaders hosted the Hurricanes in the inaugural Super 14 final and won 19–12. In 2008 the Crusaders hosted the final at AMI Stadium against the Waratahs, ironically the Crusaders also hold the record for the least points scored in a game when they were defeated by the Highlanders 6–0 in 2009. They have also scored the most points and most tries in one season, individual players also hold records, Andrew Mehrtens for most points in a Super 12 season, and Rico Gear for most tries in a season. They also have three International Rugby Board Players of the Year, Dan Carter, Richie McCaw, and, the original Crusaders team of 1996 was captained by All Blacks prop Richard Loe and coached by Vance Stewart. The Crusaders struggled in the season and finished bottom of the table with only two wins. Their eight losses included a 49–18 loss to the Blues and a 52–16 loss to the Queensland Reds, and the First ever tour was a pre-visit to South Africa prior start of Super 12. The following season saw a change in captain and coach, with Todd Blackadder succeeding Loe as captain, with five wins, the team finished the round-robin stage in sixth place. The improvement was particularly illustrated by the Crusaders 29–28 loss to the champions, the Blues. During this loss, Leon MacDonald was taken out with a charge by Robin Brooke. While the Crusaders attempted to get MacDonald back on the field, in their last game of 1997, the Crusaders beat the Queensland Reds 48–3 at Lancaster Park, now known as AMI Stadium. The Crusaders won their first title in 1998, despite starting the season with three losses in their first four games. They finished the round-robin by winning their last seven games, culminating in a win over the Coastal Sharks that gave them second place in the round-robin phase of the competition

7.
Phillip Cox & Partners
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Philip Sutton Cox AO is an Australian architect. Cox is the partner of COX Architects, one of the largest architectural practices in Australia. He commenced his first practice with Ian McKay in 1963, then, in 1967 he founded his own practice, Philip Cox, the firm has grown to become COX Architects, which has 400 staff. He has been described as “epitomising the Sydney School of Architecture” in earlier projects and his work has won him multiple awards, the first being in 1963, one year after graduating from the University of Sydney. His most recent award was in 1989, Philip Sutton Cox was born on 1 October 1939 to Ron and May Cox. He has one sister, Judith. His childhood was comfortable, growing up in Killara on the North Shore in Sydney but he was born just one month after the start of the Second World War, Cox attended Gordon Public School and then the Sydney Church of England Grammar School in North Sydney. Cox decided at quite an early age that he wanted to be an architect and he won a Commonwealth scholarship which was to pay his fees. Cox was the responsible for initially implementing the American Radburn design for public housing in New South Wales. Cox and his firm have designed many public buildings in Australia. In 1988 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of service to architecture, in 1993 he received the inaugural award for Sport and Architecture from the International Olympic Committee, and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Cox married Louise, an architect, in Sydney in April 1972. They have two daughters, Charlotte and Sophie, Cox Architects, selected and current works. Cox, Philip Sutton, Harrison, Stuart, Kaji-OGrady, Sandra, Johnson, a decade in review, Philip Cox. Canberra, Royal Australian Institute of Architects, Australian Architects, Philip Cox, Richardson & Taylor. Canberra, Royal Australian Institute of Architects, museum of Applied Arts & Sciences. Profile, Philip Cox AO. Cox Architects, phillip Cox and The Spirit of Place. Australian Broadcasting Corporation – via Radio National, museum of Applied Arts & Sciences

8.
Canberra Raiders
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The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasias elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby League premiership since 1982, over this period the club has won 3 premierships, received 1 wooden spoon and had a total of 15 of its players selected to don the green and gold for Australia. The Raiders current home ground is Canberra Stadium in Bruce, previously, the team played home matches at Seiffert Oval in Queanbeyan, New South Wales, with the move to Canberra Stadium taking place in 1990. The official symbol for the Canberra Raiders is the Viking, the Viking, also a mascot at Raiders games, is known as Victor the Viking. As part of the New South Wales Rugby Football League premierships first expansion outside Sydney and this heralded a period of great success for the club, with five grand Final appearances and three premierships in eight years. During this period, the Raiders boasted international players such as Mal Meninga, Laurie Daley, Ricky Stuart, Glenn Lazarus, Bradley Clyde, Gary Belcher, Brett Mullins and Steve Walters. After this came the Super League war, with the Raiders switching to the competition before continuing to compete in the re-unified NRL. During the 2000s the Raiders suffered from an exodus of experience, at the beginning of the 2009 season, the Raiders squad contained only four players who have played at the representative level. At the beginning of the 1980s, the New South Wales Rugby Football League was looking to expand its Sydney-based premiership into other areas of the state, the Canberra franchise was accepted in 1981 as the 14th team for the 1982 NSWRFL season. Along with the Illawarra Steelers who were introduced that season. The clubs initial seasons were a bag, with the team earning the Wooden Spoon in their debut year. The team was notorious for late game collapses, leading to the nicknames Canberra Faders and Pine Lime Splices, in fact, no team has conceded more tries in a season than the 1982 Raiders. The first points recorded by the Canberra Raiders were scored by Peter McGrath, McGrath finished with 41 points in his first and only season with the Raiders. The clubs first win, a 12–11 heartstopper v Newtown, came in its 8th match,1983 saw 9 wins, more than doubling 1982s four. However, the continued to struggle to win away from home. An away win first up in 1984 foreshadowed a much improved season, but this game was lost, and the Raiders had still not succeeded in reaching the semi-finals of the competition. 1985 saw regression, with the team winning only 8 games and this was the most successful period in the Raiders short history, with 5 Grand Finals and 3 premierships. In 1987, the finished third after the minor rounds

9.
National Rugby League
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The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league clubs in Australasia. It is regarded as the worlds elite rugby league championship and, the National Rugby League is Australias top-level domestic rugby-league club competition. It contains clubs from the original Sydney club Rugby League competition and this partnership was dissolved in February 2012, with control of the NRL going to the independently formed Australian Rugby League Commission. NRL matches are played in Australia and New Zealand from March to October, in addition, the NRL premiers also play in the World Club Challenge, a pre-season match against the champions of the European Super League competition. The reigning premiers are the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks winning their maiden premiership after 50 years, the New South Wales Rugby League ran the major rugby league competition of New South Wales from its inception in 1908 until 1994. Following the 1983 season, Sydney foundation club Newtown Jets were ultimately forced to withdraw from the competition because of financial difficulties, the Brisbane and Newcastle sides proved to be successful and popular and paved the way towards a push for a truly national competition. This was attempted in 1995 with control of the passing from the NSWRFL to the Australian Rugby League. The ARL undertook moves to invite the traditional clubs that had moved to the Super League competition back into a re-unified competition. Following a period of negotiation with News Corporation, on 23 September 1997 the ARL announced that it was forming a new company to conduct the competition in 1998, on 7 October News Manaaki Ranginui announced that he was confident that there would be a single competition in 1998. As a result, in the months the National Rugby League, jointly owned by the ARL. Clubs on both sides of the war were shut down, One condition of the peace agreement between the ARL and News Limited was that there would be a 14 team competition in 2000. The 20 clubs that played in 1998 would be assessed on various items such as sponsorship, crowds, on-field success and it was also announced that clubs that merged would receive a large sum of money, as well as a guaranteed position in the 2000 NRL Competition. The St. George Dragons and the Illawarra Steelers were the first clubs to take up the offer, the 1999 NRL Grand Final brought about a new official world record attendance for a game of rugby league. 107,999 spectators saw the Melbourne Storm defeat the newly created St. George Illawarra Dragons in the decider at Stadium Australia. Balmain and Western Suburbs formed the club, the Wests Tigers at the end of 1999, while North Sydney. As part of another image makeover, a number of teams also released new club logos, the most notable of these was the Sydney Roosters, dropping the City section of their name for the 2000 season and beyond. Souths were controversially axed from the competition at the end of 1999 for failing to meet the criteria and this move was highly controversial and on 12 November 2000 about 80,000 marched in protest at their continued exclusion. South Sydney challenged the decision in the Federal Court claiming that the NRL agreement was exclusionary, intended to unfairly exclude South Sydney, justice Paul Finn ruled that the agreement did not specifically exclude any club and dismissed the Rabbitohs claims for re-instatement into the national competition

10.
Brumbies
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The Brumbies are an Australian professional rugby union football team competing in the Super Rugby. The team is based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory and named for the horses which inhabit the capitals hinterland. The team represents the ACT and southern New South Wales regions, the Brumbies were formed in 1996 to provide a third Australian franchise for the newly formed Super 12 competition. It was predicted that the Brumbies, made up of so-called reject – players not wanted by the two teams – would perform poorly. Since then, they have enjoyed more success than all the other Australian teams combined, reaching six finals, the Brumbies play in navy blue, white and gold kits. The team plays at GIO Stadium in Canberra and is coached by former Wallabies fly-half Stephen Larkham. Rugby union football has a history in the ACT. The British Isles opened their 1899 tour of Australia with a match in Goulburn, however, it was not until 1938 that the ACT Rugby Union was finally established. Four clubs made up the first local competition, University, Easts, RMC, also in 1938, a representative ACT side faced off against the All Blacks, losing 5 to 56. The first international victory for an ACT representative side was in 1973, in 1978 an ACT side defeated Wales, who were Five Nations champions at the time. ACT had trailed at half time,6 to 16, but came back, the ACT representative side became known as the Kookaburras in 1989. ACT became Australias third provincial team in the new competition, known officially as the ACT Brumbies, in the inaugural Super 12 season, under coach Rod Macqueen, the Brumbies finished fifth on the table after the regular season, narrowly missing out on a finals position. The following season was more successful as the Brumbies entered the 1997 Super 12 Final. Eddie Jones took over as coach in 1998, but the Brumbies fell to tenth place on the 1998 season ladder. However, the season saw a big improvement, as they finished fifth for the second time in their Super rugby history. In 2000, the Brumbies made it to the 2000 Super 12 Final for the second time and they were however beaten by the Crusaders, losing 19 to 20. In 2001 they backed up their performance in 2000 to again enter the final. The Brumbies won the match, and in doing so, became the first team outside of New Zealand to be crowned Super 12 champions and that year the British Lions also came to Australia, and played a match against the Brumbies

11.
Super Rugby
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Super Rugby is the preeminent professional mens rugby union football competition in the Southern Hemisphere and Japan. By 2006, matches were being broadcast in 41 countries, SANZAAR is the body that administers Super Rugby, and has the Australian, New Zealand, South African and Argentine rugby unions as its sole members. The organisation was formed in 1995 to establish and run the Super 12, prior to 2011, Super Rugby was a round-robin competition where each team played with every other team once, a team had six or seven home games, and six or seven away games each. The winner received four points, if the game was a draw two points were awarded to each team. The Rugby union bonus points system was used, where any team scoring four or more tries, and/or losing by seven points or less. In 2016, the try bonus changed, a team now has to score three more tries than their opponents. The top four teams at the end of the round-robin phase then played semi-finals – the first placed team hosting the fourth placed team, the two winners then played the final at the home ground of the top surviving seed. There were 91 regular season games in total, games were held over 14 weekends with each team receiving one bye. From 2011 –2015 the format changed, with each country forming its own conference, each team within a conference plays each of the other teams in its conference twice, once at home and once away. Each team then plays four out of the five teams each of the other conferences once. Competition points are awarded on a basis as before. The four lower ranking teams are paired in two sudden death games, the winners of two games each play one of the two top ranked teams. Those winners play for the championship, in 2016 the format changed with three more teams joining. There are four conferences with Africa getting two conferences, the finals now have eight teams with each conference winner getting a home quarter final. They are joined by four wild card teams, three will be from the Australasian group and one from the South African group, before 1996, a number of transnational competitions involving regional and provincial rugby union teams had taken shape in the southern hemisphere. The earliest of these was the South Pacific Championship, which was launched in 1986, after the demise of the South Pacific Championship, with no tournament played in 1991, the competition was relaunched as the Super 6 in 1992. In 1993, the Super Six competition was revamped and expanded into the Super 10 tournament, the inaugural competition featured the following teams, Waikato, Auckland, Otago and North Harbour, Natal, Transvaal and Northern Transvaal, Queensland and New South Wales and Western Samoa. The Super 10 was won by Transvaal in 1993, and by Queensland in 1994 and 1995, the official declaration of professionalism in rugby union in August 1995 led to a restructuring of the Super 10 competition

12.
Canberra City FC
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Canberra City Football Club, also known for some time as the Canberra Arrows, is a semi-professional soccer club based in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory. It currently participates in the Capital Footballs Division One competition and competed in the National Soccer League from 1977 to 1986, Canberra City entered the new national competition for the inaugural season in 1977 as the only team representing the ACT. In its first season, home games were played at Manuka Oval which had the honour of hosting the first ever NSL match when City were defeated 3-1 by West Adelaide SC in front of a crowd of 1,550. In 1978 the club moved to the newly constructed Bruce Stadium, Canberra remained competitive throughout its tenure in the league, but had limited success being unable to reach the finals series in any season. The most successful seasons were in 1981 with a fifth-placed finish, a restructure of the national league for the 1987 season saw Canberra relegated to the NSW State League. The Wolves returned to the NSL, whilst City withdrew to join ACT football, also in 2005, Canberra City Premier League Women won just about everything on offer under the guidance of 2005 Womens Coach of the Year, Pat Mills. Canberra City has close links with one of Canberras largest junior organisations the Gungahlin United FC, after relegation from the National Premier Leagues Capital Football in 2014, Canberra City currently find themselves in the Capital Footballs Division One, the third level of football in the ACT

13.
Canberra Cosmos FC
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Canberra Cosmos FC is a defunct Australian association football club based in Canberra in the ACT. It participated in the National Soccer League from the 1995/96 season until the end of the 2000/01 season, after which it folded, throughout their tenure in the NSL, the club failed to attract supporters and had limited on-field success. The Cosmos were founded in 1995 as a new franchise for entry into the 1995/96 NSL season, the club arose as a ‘community model’ consortium with shares held by ACT Soccer Federation and a number of local clubs, with some support from the ACT Government. Canberra finished respectably in their first season for a new club, in finishing ninth, they performed better than much more experienced teams Wollongong, Newcastle Breakers and Gippsland Falcons. Much of the credit could be given to experienced Socceroo captain Paul Wade, but 1995–96 also saw the revelation of talented Canberra-based youngsters Michael Musitano and Alex Castro, who were accordingly snapped up by other clubs in the 1996 off-season. Canberras second season was much more forgettable however, in finishing last, the club ended the season 16 points behind second-last placed team. Despite a dreary end to the season, an action would revive the club in 1997 as computing company Novell came on board with a stunningly large sponsorship deal. This allowed the Cosmos to recruit the 1996–97 coach of the year Branko Culina and after losing their best players the previous year, New signings included Scottish defender Gordon Hunter from Hibernian, Sydney United midfielder Ante Moric and the return of Michael Musitano. Unfortunately, this did not translate into performance, winning only once in the first thirteen games – a run including an 8–0 loss to Wollongong –. The Cosmos finished the 1997–98 season bottom of the table again which saw the departure of Culina, the Cosmos continued to struggle in the national competition, finishing last for the third year in a row, ten points behind the second-last team. The 1999–2000 season saw some on-field improvement by the club achieving nine wins, however, the Cosmos remained unstable financially, and administrators were appointed on 30 June 2000 to oversee the clubs financial position. Soccer Australia determined in mid-2000 that it would review the NSL for the 2001–02 season, appeals by and on behalf of the ejected clubs followed seeking a reversal of the decision, criticising the process and criteria used. Eventually the Soccer Australia board, under pressure from stakeholders and political figures agreed to “re-admit” Canberra, the Cosmos stepped up planning for the new season, appointing new coaching staff and even forming a partnership with English Second Division club Swindon Town. Despite looking forward, the Cosmos’ financial problems remained and were unable to recover from the initial exclusion decision, the club had only a single first team during its existence with no incorporated reserves or youth development system, owing in part to the structure of the NSL. Local players were drawn from the ACT leagues and formed a component of the squads. While the National Youth League was in operation the ACT Academy of Sport provided the Cosmos youth side through the involvement of Soccer Canberra, the Canberran location provided a potential pathway for players from the AIS Football Squad, although no formal links were ever established. The program, aimed at developing players aged 16–17, also competed in the NYL independently, few players graduated successfully from the ACTAS and AIS programs to the Cosmos squad. The alternate strip was a shirt and shorts, also with large stars in the trim

14.
2015 AFC Asian Cup
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The 2015 AFC Asian Cup was the 16th edition of the mens AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation. It was held in Australia from 9 to 31 January 2015, the win was Australias first Asian title since their move from the Oceania Football Confederation in 2006. Australia was chosen as the host on 5 January 2011, after being the sole bidder for the right to host the 2015 tournament, the matches were played in five different stadiums across five cities, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Newcastle. It was the first time that Australia had hosted the tournament, the final tournament was played in two stages, the group stage and the knockout stage. In the group each team played three games in a group of four, with the winners and runners-up from each group advancing to the knockout stage. In the knockout stage the eight teams competed in matches, beginning with the quarter-finals. A third-place match was played between the two losing teams of the semi-finals. Japan were the defending champions going into the tournament, having won the competition in 2011. They recorded their worst finish in the Asian Cup since the 1996 edition in the United Arab Emirates, Australia initially put forward its bid to host the 2015 AFC Asian Cup in 2010. As the sole bidder for the rights, Australia was officially named host on 5 January 2011. The 2015 AFC Asian Cup qualification process determined the 16 participating teams for the tournament, there were two main competitive paths to the 2015 Asian Cup. The AFC Challenge Cup acted as a competition for eligible countries within the emerging and developing category of member associations. The winners of the AFC Challenge Cup competitions in 2012 and 2014 qualified automatically for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup finals, the remaining spots were available for the teams competing in the main Asian Cup preliminaries. The AFC decided that the 20 teams involved in the qualifiers would be split into five groups of four teams each, the top two teams from each group and one best third-placed team from among all the groups would qualify for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup. The following sixteen teams qualified for the tournament, the draw for the final tournament occurred at the Sydney Opera House on 26 March 2014. The draw procedure involved the 16 participating teams drawn at random into the four groups of the group stage, in preparation for this, the teams were organised into four pots based on a seeding which used the March 2014 FIFA World Rankings. The draw and seeding ensured a fair distribution of teams in the groups, the host nation was automatically placed into Pot 1, with the team having been predetermined to be in Group A. In addition, at the time of the draw, the identity of the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup winners was not known yet, and they were automatically placed into Pot 4

15.
Rugby league
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Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field. One of the two codes of football, it originated in England in 1895 as a split from the Rugby Football Union over the issue of payments to players. Its rules gradually changed with the aim of producing a faster, in rugby league, points are scored by carrying the ball and touching it to the ground beyond the opposing teams goal line, this is called a try, and is the primary method of scoring. The opposing team attempts to stop the side scoring points by tackling the player carrying the ball. In addition to tries, points can be scored by kicking goals, after each try, the scoring team gains a free kick to try at goal with a conversion for further points. Kicks at goal may also be awarded for penalties, and field goals can be attempted at any time. Rugby league is a sport in Northern England, the states of Queensland and New South Wales in Australia, New Zealand. The European Super League and Australasian National Rugby League are the club competitions. Rugby league is played internationally, predominantly by European, Australasian and Pacific Island countries, the first Rugby League World Cup was held in France in 1954, the current holders are Australia. The first of these, the Northern Rugby Football Union, was established in 1895 as a faction of Englands Rugby Football Union. Similar breakaway factions split from RFU-affiliated unions in Australia and New Zealand in 1907 and 1908, renaming themselves rugby football leagues, in 1922, the Northern Union also changed its name to the Rugby Football League and thus over time the sport itself became known as rugby league football. In 1895, a schism in Rugby football resulted in the formation of the Northern Rugby Football Union, within fifteen years of that first meeting in Huddersfield, more than 200 RFU clubs had left to join the rugby revolution. In 1897, the line-out was abolished and in 1898 professionalism introduced, in 1906, the Northern Union changed its rules, reducing teams from 15 to 13 a side and replacing the ruck formed after every tackle with the play the ball. A similar schism to that which occurred in England took place in Sydney, There, on 8 August 1907 the New South Wales Rugby Football League was founded at Batemans Hotel in George Street. Rugby league then went on to rugby union as the primary football code in New South Wales. On 5 May 1954 over 100,000 spectators watched the 1953–54 Challenge Cup Final at Odsal Stadium, Bradford, England, also in 1954 the Rugby League World Cup, the first for either code of rugby, was formed at the instigation of the French. In 1966, the International Board introduced a rule that a team in possession was allowed three play-the-balls and on the tackle a scrum was to be formed. This was increased to six tackles in 1972 and in 1983 the scrum was replaced by a handover,1967 saw the first professional Sunday matches of rugby league played

16.
Rugby union
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Rugby union, known in some parts of the world simply as rugby, is a contact team sport which originated in England in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is between two teams of 15 players using a ball on a rectangular field with H-shaped goalposts on each try line. Historically an amateur sport, in 1995 restrictions on payments to players were removed, World Rugby, originally the International Rugby Football Board and from 1998 to 2014 the International Rugby Board, has been the governing body for rugby union since 1886. Rugby union spread from the Home Nations of Great Britain and Ireland, early exponents of the sport included Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and France. Countries that have adopted rugby union as their de facto national sport include Fiji, Georgia, Madagascar, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Rugby union is played in over 100 countries across six continents, there are 101 full members and 18 associate members of World Rugby. The Rugby World Cup, first held in 1987, takes place four years with the winner of the tournament receiving the Webb Ellis Cup. The Six Nations Championship in Europe and The Rugby Championship in the Southern Hemisphere are major annual competitions. The origin of football is reputed to be an incident during a game of English school football at Rugby School in 1823. Although the evidence for the story is doubtful, it was immortalised at the school with a plaque unveiled in 1895, despite the doubtful evidence, the Rugby World Cup trophy is named after Webb Ellis. Rugby football stems from the form of game played at Rugby School, Old Rugbeian Albert Pell, a student at Cambridge, is credited with having formed the first football team. During this early period different schools used different rules, with pupils from Rugby. Other important events include the Blackheath Clubs decision to leave the Football Association in 1863, despite the sports full name of rugby union, it is known simply as rugby throughout most of the world. The first rugby football international was played on 27 March 1871 between Scotland and England, by 1881 both Ireland and Wales had representative teams, and in 1883 the first international competition, the Home Nations Championship had begun. 1883 is also the year of the first rugby tournament, the Melrose Sevens. During the early history of union, a time before commercial air travel. The first two notable tours both took place in 1888—the British Isles team touring New Zealand and Australia, followed by the New Zealand team touring Europe, All three teams brought new styles of play, fitness levels and tactics, and were far more successful than critics had expected. After Morgan began singing, the crowd joined in, the first time a national anthem was sung at the start of a sporting event, in 1905 France played England in its first international match

17.
Australian Institute of Sport
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The Australian Institute of Sport is a sports training institution in Australia. The Institutes headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in Canberra, the 66-hectare site campus is in the northern suburb of Bruce. The AIS is a division of the Australian Sports Commission, the need of the AIS was compounded in 1976 when the Australian Olympic team failed to win an Olympic gold medal in Montreal, which was regarded as a national embarrassment for Australia. The Institutes well-funded programs have been regarded as a reason for Australias recent success in international sporting competitions. There are a number of sculptures located throughout the Bruce Campus, such as Acrobats, Gymnast, Pole Vaulter and Soccer Players by John Robinson and the Swimmer by Guy Boyd. After the Sydney 2000 Olympics, two of the three sculptures - Gymnast and Wheelchair Basketballer - that were located on the Sydney Tower Eye prior to the Olympics were installed at the AIS. The AIS Arena is a 5,200 capacity indoor stadium which has used for sports such as basketball, gymnastics. Directly adjacent to, but not strictly part of the Institute is the 25,000 capacity outdoor Canberra Stadium which has hosted matches of all the forms of football played in Australia. In 2005,2009 and 2010 the Institute won awards at the prestigious Canberra and these awards were given in recognition of the daily public tours that are available. Each tour, which takes in several different buildings of the Institute as well as the arena, shortly after its inception in 1981, the AIS held a competition for a symbol that would depict the AIS aim of achieving supremacy in sport. The winner was a student from Bendigo in Victoria, Rose-Marie Derrico. Her design showed an athlete with hands clasped above the head in recognition of victory, the colours of the logo were red, white and blue, which are the same colours as the Australian flag. On 3 February 2014, the AIS launched a new logo in line with its new direction as outlined in its Winning Edge program that was launched in 2012, landor Associates designed the new brand and logo. The gold in the brand representing Australias pursuit of gold, from 2014, as a result of Australias Winning Edge 2012-2022 strategy, the AIS no longer directly offered scholarships to athletes. As a result of the strategy, many sporting organisations are utilizing the AIS facilities and services on an ongoing or regular basis. Several national sports organisations have located their national centres for excellence at the AIS, the AIS does continue to support other athletes in other sports however they are self funded and not under the National Training Centre banner. Many prominent Australian athletes have taken up AIS scholarships, in 2001, the AIS established the Best of the Best Award to recognise highly performed AIS athletes. In August 2013, Stuart OGrady was indefinitely suspended from the Best of the Best due to his admission to doping in 1998, the Australian Institute of Sport Alumni highlights the many prominent Australian athletes that the AIS has assisted

18.
Canberra
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Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of 381,488, it is Australias largest inland city, the city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory,280 km south-west of Sydney, and 660 km north-east of Melbourne. A resident of Canberra is known as a Canberran, the site of Canberra was selected for the location of the nations capital in 1908 as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne, Australias two largest cities. It is unusual among Australian cities, being a planned city outside of any state, similar to Washington, D. C. in the United States. Following an international contest for the design, a blueprint by American architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin was selected. The Griffins plan featured geometric motifs such as circles, hexagons and triangles, the citys design was influenced by the garden city movement and incorporates significant areas of natural vegetation that have earned Canberra the title of the bush capital. Although the Australian Capital Territory is now self-governing, the Commonwealth Government retains some influence through the National Capital Authority, the Australian Armys officer corps is trained at the Royal Military College, Duntroon and the Australian Defence Force Academy is also located in the capital. The ACT is independent of any state to prevent any one state from gaining an advantage by hosting the seat of Commonwealth power, the ACT has voting representation in the Commonwealth Parliament, and has its own independent Legislative Assembly and government, similar to the states. Compared to the averages, the unemployment rate is lower. Property prices are high, in part due to comparatively restrictive development regulations. An 1830s map of the region by Major Mitchell indeed does mark the Sullivans Creek floodplain between two mountains as Nganbra. Nganbra or Nganbira could readily have been anglicised to the name Canberry, survey plans of the district dated 1837 refer to the area as the Canberry Plain. Although popularly pronounced /ˈkænbərə/ or /ˈkænbɛrə/, the pronunciation at its official naming in 1913 was /ˈkæn. brə/. Before white settlement, the area in which Canberra would eventually be constructed was seasonally inhabited by Indigenous Australians, archaeological evidence of settlement in the region includes inhabited rock shelters, rock paintings and engravings, burial places, camps and quarry sites, and stone tools and arrangements. Artefacts suggests early human activity occurred at some point in the area 21,000 years previously, European exploration and settlement started in the Canberra area as early as the 1820s. There were four expeditions between 1820 and 1824, white settlement of the area probably dates from 1823, when a homestead or station was built on what is now the Acton peninsula by stockmen employed by Joshua John Moore. He formally applied to purchase the site on 16 December 1826, on 30 April 1827, Moore was told by letter that he could retain possession of 1,000 acres at Canberry. The European population in the Canberra area continued to grow throughout the 19th century

19.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia

20.
Philip Cox
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Philip Sutton Cox AO is an Australian architect. Cox is the partner of COX Architects, one of the largest architectural practices in Australia. He commenced his first practice with Ian McKay in 1963, then, in 1967 he founded his own practice, Philip Cox, the firm has grown to become COX Architects, which has 400 staff. He has been described as “epitomising the Sydney School of Architecture” in earlier projects and his work has won him multiple awards, the first being in 1963, one year after graduating from the University of Sydney. His most recent award was in 1989, Philip Sutton Cox was born on 1 October 1939 to Ron and May Cox. He has one sister, Judith. His childhood was comfortable, growing up in Killara on the North Shore in Sydney but he was born just one month after the start of the Second World War, Cox attended Gordon Public School and then the Sydney Church of England Grammar School in North Sydney. Cox decided at quite an early age that he wanted to be an architect and he won a Commonwealth scholarship which was to pay his fees. Cox was the responsible for initially implementing the American Radburn design for public housing in New South Wales. Cox and his firm have designed many public buildings in Australia. In 1988 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of service to architecture, in 1993 he received the inaugural award for Sport and Architecture from the International Olympic Committee, and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Cox married Louise, an architect, in Sydney in April 1972. They have two daughters, Charlotte and Sophie, Cox Architects, selected and current works. Cox, Philip Sutton, Harrison, Stuart, Kaji-OGrady, Sandra, Johnson, a decade in review, Philip Cox. Canberra, Royal Australian Institute of Architects, Australian Architects, Philip Cox, Richardson & Taylor. Canberra, Royal Australian Institute of Architects, museum of Applied Arts & Sciences. Profile, Philip Cox AO. Cox Architects, phillip Cox and The Spirit of Place. Australian Broadcasting Corporation – via Radio National, museum of Applied Arts & Sciences

21.
International Association of Athletics Federations
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The International Association of Athletics Federations is the international governing body for the sport of athletics. It was founded on 17 July 1912 as the International Amateur Athletic Federation by representatives from 17 national athletics federations at the organizations first congress in Stockholm, since October 1993, it has been headquartered in Monaco. Beginning in 1982, the IAAF passed several amendments to its rules to allow athletes to receive compensation for participating in international competitions. However, the organization retained the word amateur in its name until its 2001 congress, the IAAFs president is Sebastian Coe of the United Kingdom. He was elected at the 2015 congress before the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, the process to found the IAAF was started at a meeting in Stockholm, Sweden on July 17,1912 soon after the completion of the 1912 Summer Olympics in that city. The congress that started on August 20,1913 in Berlin is when the foundation of the IAAF was formally completed, in 2015, a whistleblower leaked IAAFs blood test records from major competitions. After reviewing the results, Robin Parisotto, a scientist and leading anti-doping expert, said, so many athletes appear to have doped with impunity, and it is damning that the IAAF appears to have idly sat by and let this happen. Craig Reedie, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said his organisation was very disturbed by these new allegations, which will, once again, shake the foundation of clean athletes worldwide, and that its independent commission will investigate the claims. On 1 November 2015, former IAAF president Lamine Diack was arrested in France and is under investigation on suspicion of corruption, Diack allegedly accepted $1.2 million from the Russian athletics federation to cover up the positive doping tests of at least six Russian athletes in 2011. The report continued that the IAAF allowed the conduct to occur and must accept its responsibility and that corruption was embedded in the organization. In January 2016, as a result of the scandal and WADAs report. The BBC reported that as a result the IAAF would lose $33 million worth of revenue, the 11-year sponsorship deal with Adidas was due to run until 2019. World-record holding sprinter, Michael Johnson, described the scandal as more serious than that faced by FIFA, in February,2016, Nestle announced that it was ending its IAAF sponsorship. In June 2016, following a meeting of the IAAFs ruling council, in Ferbuary 2017, All-Russia Athletic Federation disqualified by decision of the IAAF Council for 8 years for the creation of a doping system. Since the establishment of the IAAF, it has had six presidents, The IAAF has a total of 215 member federations divided into 6 area associations

22.
IAAF Continental Cup
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The IAAF Continental Cup is an international athletics competition which comprises track and field events. It is the world cup contested by teams representing entire continents. The event takes place four years. The founder of the World Cup was the Italian IAAF former President Primo Nebiolo, the previous format included separate mens and womens competitions. Eight teams would take part in each event - five continental, if the stadium had a ninth lane, the host nation could also enter a team. The winning mens and womens teams from the preceding European Cup qualified as teams for the World Cup. The continental teams comprised Africa, Asia, Oceania, the rest of America, beginning with the 2010 event in Split, Croatia, the format was changed and the competition renamed the IAAF Continental Cup. The number of teams was reduced to four, Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe. National teams were eliminated from the competition, in addition, the separate mens and womens competitions were merged, the continental teams now compete for a single mixed championship. After a decision at the 206th IAAF Council Meeting, held after the 2016 Summer Olympics, the 4 ×400 metres relay event was also modified to a mixed gender event. * = last IAAF Continental Cup competition in 1994 IAAF World Cup and Continental Cup Statistic Handbook Mark Butlers top ten moments, Men, Women

23.
Marita Koch
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Marita Koch, married name Marita Koch Meier, is a German former sprint track and field athlete. During her career she collected sixteen world records in outdoor sprints as well as fourteen world records in indoor events and her record of 47.60 in the 400 metres, set on 6 October 1985, still stands. Only once since then has another athlete come within a second of her time, perec was also coached later on in her sprinting career by Kochs coach, Wolfgang Meier. Born in Wismar, East Germany, Marita Koch displayed exceptional speed even as a child and was defeating boys much older than herself in sprint races whilst at school. By the time she had turned 15 years old, she was training under Wolfgang Meier, Meier worked as a Naval Engineer, but also coached athletics part-time. Koch and Meier moved to Rostock where Koch began to study medicine, however, she decided to stop her studies and focus on running instead. Koch was coached by Meier for her career, and they later married. She retained her name and is now known as Marita Koch-Meier. She and her husband have a daughter named Ulrike, Koch has held world records over several distances from 50 m to 400 m. She set her first world record in 1977 in Milan, when she ran a 400 m indoors in 51.8 seconds, the following year, she set her first outdoor record at 400 m in 49.19 seconds. She topped this with two world records within a month. In 1979 Koch became the first woman to run a 200 m in under 22 seconds and her time of 21.71 seconds set at Karl Marx Stadt stood as the world record for nine years. She tied her own 200 m world record in 1984, however, her 200 m world record was equaled twice in 1986 by Heike Drechsler. One of Drechslers 21.71 second 200 m performances was achieved into a headwind whereas both of Kochs performances of 21.71 had a tailwind, at the Moscow Olympics of 1980 Koch won the gold medal in the 400 m. Three weeks before the 1984 Olympic Games, she equaled her own record and she also won the European Championships at 400 m in 1978,1982 and 1986. She remained the European record holder for the 200 m until 28 August 2015 when Dafne Schippers won the 200 m final at the 2015 World Championships with a time of 21.63 seconds, as a member of East Germanys relay teams, Koch also set more world records. They set new records in the 4 ×100 m in 1979 and 1983. The same team won silver in the 4 ×400 m relay in the 1980 Olympic Games and they also set world records over the same distance in 1980,1982 and 1984

24.
2012 Summer Olympics
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It took place in London and to a lesser extent across the United Kingdom from 25 July to 12 August 2012. The first event, the stage in womens football began on 25 July at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. 10,768 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees participated, London is the first and only city thus far to host the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1908 and in 1948. Construction for the Games involved considerable redevelopment, with an emphasis on sustainability, the main focus was a new 200-hectare Olympic Park, constructed on a former industrial site at Stratford, East London. The Games also made use of venues that already existed before the bid, the Games received widespread acclaim for their organisation, with the volunteers, the British military and public enthusiasm praised particularly highly. During the Games, Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Brunei entered female athletes for the first time, so that every currently eligible country has sent a female competitor to at least one Olympic Games. Womens boxing was included for the first time, thus the Games became the first at which every sport had female competitors and these were the final Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Jacques Rogge. The final medal tally was led by the United States, followed by China, several world and Olympic records were set at the games. Furthermore, the focus on sporting legacy and post-games venue sustainability was seen as a blueprint for future Olympics. On 18 May 2004, as a result of a technical evaluation. All five submitted their candidate files by 19 November 2004 and were visited by the IOC inspection team during February, throughout the process, Paris was widely seen as the favourite, particularly as this was its third bid in recent years. London was initially seen as lagging behind Paris by a considerable margin and its position began to improve after the appointment of Lord Coe as the new head of London 2012 on 19 May 2004. In late August 2004, reports predicted a tie between London and Paris, on 6 June 2005, the IOC released its evaluation reports for the five candidate cities. They did not contain any scores or rankings, but the report for Paris was considered the most positive, London was close behind, having closed most of the gap observed by the initial evaluation in 2004. New York and Madrid also received positive evaluations. On 1 July 2005, when asked who would win, Jacques Rogge said, but my gut feeling tells me that it will be very close. Perhaps it will come down to a difference of say ten votes, on 6 July 2005, the final selection was announced at the 117th IOC Session in Singapore. Moscow was the first city to be eliminated, followed by New York, the final two contenders were London and Paris

25.
1990 NSWRL season
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The 1990 New South Wales Rugby League season was the eighty-third season of professional rugby league football in Australia. For the 1990 season, the cap was introduced in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership. Twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March till August, resulting in a top six of Canberra, Brisbane, Penrith, Manly, Balmain, parramattas halfback Peter Sterling won the official player of the year award, the Rothmans Medal. The Dally M Medal was awarded to Manlys five-eighth Cliff Lyons, Rugby League Week gave their player of the year award to Canberra Raiders centre and captain, Mal Meninga. The track, which had previously released by Bonnie Tyler with modest results. After hearing demo tracks, Walpole and the NSWRL General Manager John Quayle, Turner was brought to Australia amid much public interest for a massive film shoot where enough footage was secured for advertisements for both the 1990 and 1991 seasons. Throughout are the de rigueur big hits and action shots, with Turner cheering in a grand final crowd. Canberra won their first minor premiership, Balmain and Newcastle both finished on equal competition points in fifth position at the end of the regular season, so had to play off for the chance to advance through the finals. The 1990 seasons grand final was played on the afternoon of Sunday,23 September at the Sydney Football Stadium before a crowd of 41,535. Penrith were attempting to become the first team to win a final in their first attempt. Extra time in the reserve grand final followed by the pre-match entertainment running late meant that referee Bill Harrigan blew time on for the kick-off half an hour behind schedule. This may have worked to the advantage of the more experienced Raiders, the Panthers came back to trail 12-10 after Greg Alexander put Brad Fittler in for a try just before half-time and Paul Smith in for another seven minutes into the second half. Canberra moved to 18-10 in the half when replacement winger Matthew Wood scored. A late try from Alexander still left Penrith trailing 18-14 at the full-time siren, both sides finished with three tries each but the wizadry of Stuart and the kicking boot of Meninga were the difference that saw the Raiders with their second consecutive premiership

26.
1989 NSWRL season
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The 1989 NSWRL season was the 82nd season of professional rugby league football in Australia. This season NSWRL teams also competed for the 1989 Panasonic Cup, twenty-two regular season rounds were played from March till August, resulting in a top five of Souths, Penrith, Balmain, Canberra and Cronulla to battle it out in the finals. This year Penrith forward Geoff Gerard set new record for most first-grade NSWRL permiership games at 320 before retiring at the end of the season, the 1989 seasons Rothmans Medal was shared by Cronulla-Sutherland forward Gavin Miller and Newcastle Knights front-rower Mark Sargent. Miller also won the Dally M Award and was named Rugby League Weeks player of the year,1989 was a watershed year for the New South Wales Rugby Leagues advertising commencing an association with Tina Turner that would last until 1995. In those years the NSWRL, its ad agency Hertz Walpole and promotions consultant Brian Walsh would fundamentally change the image and popular perception of the game in Australia. Agency copywriter Paul Knights inspired by the simplicity of the game. Negotiations were assisted by the fact that her Australian manager Roger Davies was familiar with the game, there was initially no intention to film Tina performing the song but at the last minute an availability appeared in her schedule. The agency and a crew were despatched to England along with the NSWRLs General Manager John Quayle bearing bags of balls, jumpers. In the finished ad the Tina footage is interspersed with the big hits. Lyons appears in the commercial in a locker room shot with Tina. Initial questions about the relevance of Tina to the Australian game were displaced when the up tempo, sexy ad appeared, Cronulla and Brisbane, having finished equal 5th, played off for a semi-final berth. With Cronulla taking 5th spot in a dominant display, in a clash on neutral turf at the recently constructed Parramatta Stadium. Despite being on fourth place on the ladder, Canberra went on to win the competition and they won their last nine games of the season. Canberras win also saw them become the first non-Sydney based club to win the premiership, for only the second time ever, the grand final was not an all-Sydney affair. Canberra captain Mal Meninga had to overcome a broken arm from earlier in the season, Canberra were coached by Tim Sheens. The Tigers were again coached by former Canterbury-Bankstown dual premiership winning coach Warren Ryan, the pre-match entertainment was provided by the late Marc Hunter, Debra Byrne, Michael Edward Stevens, boy soprano Ben Hawks &John Williamson. Balmain led 12-2 at half time, having scored two tries against the run of play, the first came after an intercept by winger James Grant, snatching an offload from Raiders prop Brent Todd. Canberra had looked marginally the better side in the first half and coach Tim Sheens spoke effectively to his players at the break, stressing that they could be considered unlucky to be trailing

27.
Queanbeyan
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Queanbeyan /ˈkwiːnbiən/ is a city in south-eastern New South Wales, located adjacent to the Australian Capital Territory in the Southern Tablelands region. Located on the Queanbeyan River, the city is the seat of the Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 37,991, Queanbeyans economy is based on light construction, manufacturing, service, retail and agriculture. Canberra, Australias capital, is located just 15 kilometres to the west, the word Queanbeyan is the anglicised form of Quinbean, an Aboriginal word meaning clear waters. The town grew from a squattage held by ex-convict and inn keeper, Timothy Beard, the town centre of Queanbeyan is located on the Queanbeyan River, a tributary of the Molonglo River and about one mile east of Oaks Estate. Queanbeyan was officially proclaimed a township in 1838 when the population was about 50, the local parish was also known by that name and later still the member for the electorate of Queanbeyan held a seat in the legislative assembly of the colony of NSW. On 28 November 1837 the Colonial Secretary announced the appointment of Captain Alured Tasker Faunce as resident police magistrate at Queanbeyan and his homestead, called Dodsworth, was situated on the banks of the Queanbeyan river opposite the town. Traces of gold were discovered in 1851 and lead and silver mines also flourished briefly, settlers were harassed by bushrangers, of which James Shaw, William Millet, and John Rueben, John Tennant, Jacky Jacky, Frank Gardiner and Ben Hall were some of the more notorious. In 1836, a Post Office was established, the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited opened in Queanbeyan on 19 September 1859. The Bank of New South Wales began service in Queanbeyan in 1878, the Golden Age was Queanbeyans first newspaper and was founded in 1860 by John Gale. In 1880 the residence of John James Wright, the first mayor of Queanbeyan, was constructed along the edge of the Queanbeyan River, in 1982 that building became the Queanbeyan Art Centre. The Salvation Army claimed an outpost in Queanbeyan in 1884, Queanbeyan, an increasingly successful primary producing district, was proclaimed a Municipality in February 1885 incorporating an area of 5,700 acres. The railway reached Queanbeyan railway station in 1887 and it became the junction for the going to Canberra. The town is served by the thrice-daily NSW TrainLink Xplorer service between Canberra and Sydney, at the height of its rural prosperity Queanbeyan boasted sixteen public houses and six flourmills powered by wind, water, horse and steam. The Royal Hotel on Monaro Street opened in 1926, in Canberra alcohol was prohibited from 1911, at the time of the territorys foundation, until 1928, when Federal Parliament had relocated from Melbourne. In that period many of the residents crossed the border to drink at one of Queanbeyans hotels. Queanbeyan was granted city status on 7 July 1972, on 21 July 1975 the Queens Bridge was opened. This bridge took pressure off the bridge in linking Monaro Street directly to the east

28.
New South Wales Rugby League
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The New South Wales Rugby League is the governing body of rugby league in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission. It was formed in Sydney on 8 August 1907 and was known as the New South Wales Rugby Football League until 1984. From 1908 to 1994, the NSWRL ran Sydneys, then New South Wales, the organisation is responsible for administering the New South Wales rugby league team. The following clubs are the clubs of the NSWRL. The New South Wales Rugby Football League was responsible for the introduction of rugby league into New South Wales in 1907, since that time the NSWRFL has built a rich tradition at all levels of the game. Great names and great games illuminate the Leagues growth since 1907 up to the present day, key figures in the new movement were James Joseph Giltinan, legendary cricketer Victor Trumper, Alex Burdon, Peter Moir, Labor politician Henry Hoyle, George Brackenreg and Jack Feneley. The first rugby game in New South Wales was played on 17 August 1907. The Sydney premiership was started on 20 April 1908, Nine teams contested the initial season. In 1929 Jersey Flegg was appointed to the position of president of the NSWRFL, at the time of his death in 1960, aged 82, he was still serving in these roles. When NSWRFL president Flegg died in 1960, Bill Buckley replaced him and also became boss of the Australian Rugby League, in 1973 Kevin Humphreys was appointed President of New South Wales Rugby League and Chairman of Australian Rugby League. Under him State of Origin was introduced, in 1983 Humphreys was succeeded in these positions by Ken Arthurson. It does so in conjunction with the NSW Country Rugby League, in a similar way, the rival Queensland Rugby League retained responsibility for that states Origin team and lower tier competitions. The Royal Agricultural Society Shield, or RAS Shield was the New South Wales Rugby League s first premiership trophy and it was presented to each years premiership winning rugby league team, the first to win three successive titles would take permanent ownership of the shield. The Eastern Suburbs club achieved this feat winning premierships in 1911,1912 and 1913, the hand crafted silver and oak designed shield was donated to the NSWRL by the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales in its first year of competition. The club has presented the shield to their captain, Dally Messenger, in 1929 Jersey Flegg was appointed to the position of president of the NSWRFL. Midway through the 1909 season, Edward Larkin was appointed secretary of the NSWRFL. In 1951, the NSWRFL originated the J. J, Giltinan Shield, following his death in 1950. This trophy was awarded to the premiers of the NSWRFL competition, being named one of the founding fathers of the NSWRFL

29.
1982 NSWRFL season
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The 1982 NSWRFL season was the seventy-fifth season of professional rugby league football in Australia. This season, NSWRFL teams also competed for the 1982 KB Cup, the first Charity Shield match was played before the 1982 season between the St. George Dragons and South Sydney Rabbitohs. Because of the introduction of two new teams, twenty-six regular season rounds were played from February till August, resulting in a top five of Easts, Newtown, Parramatta, Cronulla and Manly. The new teams, the Illawarra Steelers and the Canberra Raiders, the 1982 season saw the only nil-all scoreline in competition history. The Newtown Jets and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs drew their match at Henson Park on 28 March, the long-standing record for the longest suspension for a player in the Leagues history was broken during the season. Western Suburbs Bob Cooper was suspended for 15 months for punching Illawarra’s Lee Pomfret, the 1982 seasons Rothmans Medallist was Canterbury-Bankstown’s Greg Brentnall and the Dally M Award went to Parramatta’s lock forward, Ray Price. Rugby League Week gave their player of the award to Eastern Suburbs’ halfback Kevin Hastings for the third consecutive season. This year the number of clubs in the League reached a new high of fourteen and this saw the first inclusion of teams based outside of the Sydney area since the foundation Newcastle club departed the League in 1909. Also, for the first time in three quarters of a century, the Leagues 1908 foundation teams were outnumbered by teams introduced after 1908, the Eels won the minor premiership with ease - eight points ahead of Manly - and breezed through the decider with the same confidence. Manly opened the scoring through Phil Blake in the opening minutes, after a quiet period, Manly collapsed in the ten minutes before half-time with Parramatta scoring three tries. The Eels led 16-3 at half-time and, despite Les Boyd scoring after playing the forward in the 48th minute

30.
Australian rules football
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The main way to score points is by kicking the oval-shaped ball between the two tall goal posts. The team with the score by the end of the match wins unless a draw is declared. During general play, players may position themselves anywhere on the field, the primary methods are kicking, handballing and running with the ball. There are rules on how the ball can be handled, for example, throwing the ball is not allowed and players must not get caught holding the ball. A distinctive feature of the game is the mark, where players anywhere on the field who catch a ball from a kick are awarded possession, possession of the ball is in dispute at all times except when a free kick or mark is paid. Players can tackle using their hands or use their body to obstruct opponents. The game features frequent physical contests, spectacular marking, fast movement of players and the ball and high scoring. The sports origins can be traced to matches played in Melbourne, Victoria in 1858. Its annual Grand Final is the highest attended club championship event in the world, the sport is also played at amateur level in many countries and in several variations. The games rules are governed by the AFL Commission with the advice of the AFLs Laws of the Game Committee, there is evidence of football being played sporadically in the Australian colonies in the first half of the 19th century. The earliest such match, held in St Kilda on 15 June, was between Melbourne Grammar and St Kilda Grammar. Born in Australia, Wills played a nascent form of rugby football whilst a pupil at Rugby School in England and his letter is regarded by many historians as giving impetus for the development of a new code of football today known as Australian football. Two weeks later, Wills friend, cricketer Jerry Bryant, posted an advertisement for a match at the Richmond Paddock adjoining the Melbourne Cricket Ground. This was the first of several kickabouts held that year involving members of the Melbourne Cricket Club, including Wills, Bryant, W. J. Hammersley, trees were used as goalposts and play typically lasted an entire afternoon. Without an agreed code of laws, some players were guided by rules they had learned in the British Isles. Another significant milestone in 1858 was a match played under experimental rules between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College, held at the Richmond Paddock. This 40-a-side contest, umpired by Wills and Scotch College teacher John Macadam, began on 7 August and it is commemorated with a statue outside the MCG, and the two schools have competed annually ever since in the Cordner-Eggleston Cup, the worlds oldest continuous football competition. Since the early 20th century, it has suggested that Australian football was derived from the Irish sport of Gaelic football

31.
Australian Football League
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The Australian Football League is the pre-eminent professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the governing body. The league was founded as the Victorian Football League as a breakaway from the previous Victorian Football Association, the league currently consists of 18 teams spread over five of Australias six states. Matches have been played in all states and territories of Australia. The AFL season currently consists of a competition, followed by a 23-round regular season. The top eight teams play off in a four-round finals series, culminating in the AFL Grand Final. The winning team in the Grand Final is termed the premiers, the current premiers are the Western Bulldogs. The six clubs invited two more VFA clubs – Carlton and St Kilda – to join the league for its season in 1897. In 1908, the league expanded to ten teams, with Richmond crossing from the VFA, Port Adelaide was the most successful club of the competition winning three titles during the period along with an earlier victory. In 1925, the VFL expanded from nine teams to twelve, with Footscray, Hawthorn, North Melbourne and Hawthorn remained very weak in the VFL for a very long period. Between the years of 1927 and 1930, Collingwood became the first, in 1952, the VFL hosted National Day, when all six matches were played outside of Melbourne. Matches were played at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Brisbane Exhibition Ground, North Hobart Oval, Albury Sports Ground and Victorian country towns Yallourn, Footscray became the first of the 1925 expansion teams to win the premiership in 1954. Melbourne became a powerhouse during the 1950s and early 1960s under coach Norm Smith, the club contested seven consecutive grand finals from 1954 to 1960, winning five premierships, including three in a row from 1955 to 1957. Television coverage began in 1957, with telecasts of the final quarter permitted. At first, several channels competed through broadcasting different games, however, when the VFL found that television was reducing crowds, it decided that no coverage was to be allowed for 1960. In 1961, replays were introduced although direct telecasts were rarely permitted in Melbourne, in 1959, the VFL planned the first purpose built mega-stadium, VFL Park, to give it some independence from the Melbourne Cricket Club, which managed the Melbourne Cricket Ground. VFL Park was planned to hold 155,000 spectators, which would have made it one of the largest stadiums in the world – although it would ultimately be built with a capacity of 78,000. Land for the stadium was purchased at Mulgrave, then farmland, the VFL Premiership Trophy was first awarded in addition to a pennant flag in 1959, essentially the same trophy design has been in use since

32.
West Coast Eagles
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The West Coast Eagles is a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia, currently playing in the Australian Football League. The club is one of two Australian Football League clubs based in Western Australia, with the other being the Fremantle Football Club. The club was founded in 1986 as a team and entered the competition the following season, along with the Brisbane Bears. West Coast won its first premiership in 1992, after being defeated in the final the previous year. The clubs current coach is Adam Simpson, and the current captain is Shannon Hurn, the West Coast Eagles were selected in 1986 as one of two expansion teams to enter the Victorian Football League the following season, along with the Brisbane Bears. Ross Glendinning, recruited from North Melbourne, was made the clubs first captain as one of the few players with previous VFL experience. The teams first senior match in the VFL was played against Richmond at Subiaco Oval in late March 1987, having won eleven games and lost eleven games for the season, the club finished eighth out of fourteen teams. At the end of the season, John Todd, the coach of Swan Districts in the WAFL, the club made the finals for the first time in 1988, but lost form the following season, winning only seven games to finish 11th on the ladder. Todd was sacked at the end of the 1989 season, and was replaced by Michael Malthouse, John Worsfold replaced Steve Malaxos as captain for the 1991 season, and the club finished the season as minor premiers for the first time, losing only three games. In the finals series, West Coast progressed to the grand final, peter Sumich kicking 111 goals during the season, becoming the first West Coast player to reach a century of goals, as well as the first-ever left-footer. In 1992, West Coast finished fourth on the ladder, but again progressed to the grand final, defeating Geelong by 28 points to become the first team based outside Victoria to win a premiership. Having slipped to third in 1993, the finished as minor premiers the following season. In 1995, a second AFL team based in Western Australia, West Coast made the finals in every year that remained in the 1990s, but failed to reach another grand final, with a fourth-place finish in 1996 their best result. Worsfold retired at the end of the 1998 season, and was replaced by his vice-captain, Guy McKenna, who served as captain until his retirement two seasons later. Malthouse left West Coast at the end of the 1999 season to take up the coaching position with Collingwood, and was replaced by Ken Judge. The 2000 and 2001 seasons were marked by a decrease in form after the loss of several key senior players, culminating in a 14th-place in 2001. Round eighteen of the 2000 season marked the final match at the WACA Ground. Judge was sacked at the end of 2001, and replaced by the former captain John Worsfold

33.
Fitzroy Football Club
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The club experienced some early success in the league and was the first club to win a VFL Grand Final. It also achieved a total of eight VFL premierships between 1898 and 1944, and more recently two VAFA promotions in 2009 and 2012. Despite this, the club survived in its own right and The Fitzroy Football Club Ltd came out of administration after the merger of its AFL playing operations in late 1998. For a brief time it experimented in partnerships with other semi professional, Fitzroy largely resumed its original VFL-AFL identity through its continued use of their 1975–1996 VFL-AFL jumper, their theme song and their 1884–1966 home ground at the Brunswick Street Oval. Fitzroy began in the D1 section of the VAFA in 2009 and it is notable for being the only club to have played in the VFA, VFL, AFL and VAFA competitions of Australian Rules football. In 2015 Fitzroy fielded its first womens team under the name of Fitzroy-ACU in partnership with the Australian Catholic University, in 2016, Fitzroy-ACU fielded two womens teams in the Victorian Womens Football League VWFL. From 2017, all Fitzroy teams play in the VAFA with the playing in the VAFAs Inaugural womens competition. The Fitzroy Football Club was formed at a meeting at the Brunswick Hotel on 26 September 1883, Fitzroys season-by-season records throughout its thirteen seasons at VFA level are given below. In 1897, Fitzroy were one of the eight clubs who broke away from the VFA to form the Victorian Football League, Fitzroy was the most successful club in the first 10 years of the VFL, winning four premierships and finishing runners-up on three occasions. In contrast, the 1916 Fitzroy team only won 2 home and away matches, all four teams qualified for the finals, and Fitzroy won their next three games to win one of the strangest VFL premierships. The Maroons won their premiership in 1922, a year season which included four very rough games against eventual runners-up Collingwood. However, after this their fortunes waned, and they did not make the finals at all from 1925 to 1942 and it was during this time that the Maroons became known as the Gorillas. Football was less affected by World War II than it had been in 1916 and it was in this year, under captain-coach Fred Hughson, that the Gorillas won their eighth VFL flag against Richmond in front of a capacity crowd at Junction Oval. However, it was also to be their last senior premiership, as the club, by the mid 1960s, Fitzroys traditional home ground the Brunswick Street Oval was in a state of disrepair. Pressure was applied by most VFL clubs, including Fitzroy, to have the ground improved, however, the ground managers were the Fitzroy Cricket Club. The Football Club had to pay the Cricket Club to use the ground, the football club put forward various ideas to try and change the situation, including the amalgamation of the Football and Cricket Clubs to form one club as in the manner of the Carlton Social Club. The Cricket Club held the licence and managed the ground. With a stake in the ground, the club could have better agitated for improvements to the ground by sourcing funds from other organisations such as the VFL

34.
Sydney Swans
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The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League. The club has been based in Sydney since the South Melbourne Football Club was relocated to Sydney in 1982, Sydney was the first club in the competition to be based outside Victoria. The Swans have played their games at the Sydney Cricket Ground since 1982. The South Melbourne Football Club was founded in 1874 and was strong through the 1880s and it won three premierships in 1909,1918 and 1933 before experiencing 72 years without a premiership, the longest premiership drought of any club. The club broke the drought in 2005 and won another premiership in 2012, the inauguration date of the club is officially 19 June 1874, and it adopted the name South Melbourne Football Club four weeks later, on 15 July. In 1880, South Melbourne amalgamated with the nearby Albert-park Football Club, following the amalgamation, the club retained the name South Melbourne, and adopted the clubs now familiar red and white colours from Albert-park. Nicknamed the Southerners, the team was more known as the Bloods. The colorful epithet the Bloodstained Angels was also in use, the club was based at Lake Oval, also home of the South Melbourne Cricket Club. The match took place on 3 October 1896 at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, Collingwood won the match, six goals to five, in front of an estimated crowd of 12,000. This Grand Final would be the last match South Melbourne would play in the VFA, the other clubs were St Kilda Football Club, Essendon Football Club, Fitzroy Football Club, Melbourne Football Club, Geelong Football Club, Carlton Football Club and Collingwood Football Club. South Melbourne was one of the founding clubs of the Victorian Football League that was formed in 1897. The club had success and won three VFL premierships in 1909,1918 and 1933. Ironically, the driver was a South Melbourne supporter. It was during this period that the team known as the Swans. The name stuck, in due to the clubs association with nearby Albert Park and Lake. After several years only limited success, South Melbourne next reached the grand final in 1945. The match, played against Carlton, was to become known as the Bloodbath, courtesy of the brawl that overshadowed the match, Carlton won the match by 28 points, and from then on, South Melbourne struggled. In the following years, South Melbourne consistently struggled, as their traditional inner-city recruiting district largely emptied as a result of demographic shifts, the club missed the finals in 1946 and continued to fall such that by 1950 they were second-last on the ladder

35.
Sydney FC
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Sydney Football Club /ˈsɪdni/, commonly known as Sydney FC, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the premier competition, the A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. The club has won two A-League Championships and two Premierships and is the only A-League club to have won the OFC Champions League, since 2006, A-League teams have competed in the AFC Champions League. Sydney FC have participated in the stage of the AFC Champions League three times, previously, in 2007,2011 and 2016, qualifying for the knock-out phase of the tournament once. Having won titles in the W-League and in the National Youth League Sydney hold the distinction of being the club to have won the A-League alongside its two affiliated competitions. The clubs home ground is Allianz Stadium, a 45,500 seat multi-use venue in the suburb of Moore Park, as the only A-League team in the city for the first seven years of its existence, the clubs fans hail from all across the Sydney Metropolitan Area. Since its establishment, Sydney FC has had a reputation for signing high-profile players, notable players who have represented the club include Dwight Yorke, Juninho Paulista, John Aloisi, Brett Emerton, Lucas Neill and Alessandro Del Piero. The first steps towards the foundation of Sydney FC taken in April 2004 when Soccer New South Wales announced its intention to bid for a licence in the new A-League competition. Sydney FC was officially launched as a member of the new 8-team A-League on 1 November 2004, with a 25% stake in the held by Soccer NSW. Walter Bugno was announced as the chairman of the club. These included the choice of the Sydney Football Stadium over Parramatta Stadium as the home ground. German Pierre Littbarski was signed as Head Coach, to be assisted by former Norwich City player Ian Crook, Sydney FC played its first ever match against Manly United FC on 25 March 2005, winning 6–1. Shortly after, Sydney FC set off on a tour to the United Arab Emirates to play matches against local teams FC Hatta, Al Ain FC and Al Jazira, winning all three. Sydney FCs first competitive match was against Queensland Roar at Central Coast Stadium in Gosford as part of an Australian qualifying tournament to enter the 2005 Oceania Club Championship. After winning the match 3–0, Sydney went on to defeat Perth Glory, despite an early scare against New Zealand club Auckland City FC, Sydney FC won all of its matches in the competition and qualified for the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship in Japan. The start of the 2005 A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup marked Sydney FCs first match at Allianz Stadium, Yorke scored the first goal of Sydney FCs 3–1 win which stretched its unbeaten run to 9 competitive matches. Upon reaching the semi-finals, Sydneys unbeaten run ended at 11 with Perth Glory midfielder Nick Ward scoring in injury time to inflict the new clubs first ever loss. Sydney FCs first season was ultimately a success, finishing second on the ladder behind Adelaide United they went on to defeat Central Coast Mariners 1–0 in the 2006 A-League Grand Final with Steve Corica scoring in the second half

36.
Newcastle Jets FC
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Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the premier competition, the A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. The club was formed in 2000 when it joined the National Soccer League and was one of three former NSL clubs to join in the formation of the A-League. Newcastle Jets have won one A-League championship, after defeating rivals Central Coast Mariners 1–0 in the 2008 A-League Grand Final, in 2009, Newcastle competed in the AFC Champions League for the first time, reaching the Round of 16. In May 2015, FFA revoked Newcastles licence after owner Nathan Tinkler placed the club into voluntary administration, a new A-League club will be formed for the 2015–16 season, under the same name and colours. The club plays home games at McDonald Jones Stadium, an affiliated youth team competes in the National Youth League and in the National Premier Leagues Northern NSW competition. A womens team competes in the W-League, the youth and womens matches are played at Wanderers Oval and Adamstown Oval. Newcastle United was formed in 2000 by Cypriot-Australian businessman Con Constantine from the remnants of the Newcastle Breakers club, the Breakers were dissolved when Soccer Australia revoked its NSL licence at the conclusion of the 1999/2000 season. At the formation of Newcastle United the home ground was moved back to where Newcastle KB United played, the Newcastle United club were reasonably successful, competing in two of the last three Final Series and finishing second in the League behind Perth Glory in the 2001–02 season. The club renamed and re-badged themselves the Newcastle United Jets Football Club at the start of the new national league and this was done to try and create and project a new image of the club and to avoid confusion with the English Premier League club Newcastle United. The name Jets is a reference to RAAF Base Williamtown, located just 20 kilometres north of Newcastle, the clubs logo depicts three F/A-18 Hornets, which the Royal Australian Air Force has based at Williamtown. Instead, the club signed Richard Money for the 2005–2006 season, in 2006 Money was replaced with Nick Theodorakopoulos after Money returned to England to take the managers job at Walsall. His assistant Gary van Egmond was the coach for the remainder of the 2005–6 season. The club surprised many observers in the Australian game by signing Ned Zelic, reports suggested the Jets were attempting to bring former Liverpool and England striker Stan Collymore out of retirement. With the leadership of Gary van Egmond Newcastle has achieved the highest amount of out of all clubs in their last fourteen games and have also scored the most goals. Newcastle were eventually eliminated in the final by Adelaide, the game going to penalties after finishing at 1 all. Season 3 of the A-League saw a number of Newcastles biggest stars of the previous season leave the club, captain Paul Okon retired, fan favourite Milton Rodriguez returned to Colombia and Johnny Warren Medal winner Nick Carle moved to Turkey to link up with Gençlerbirliği S. K. New recruits included Joel Griffiths twin brother Adam and previous European Golden Boot winner Mario Jardel, although significant excitement surrounded the capture of Jardel, as time went by it was obvious he was well past his prime and received little game time

37.
2000 Summer Olympics
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It was the second time that the Summer Olympics were held in Australia, and also the Southern Hemisphere, the first being in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1956. Sydney was selected as the host city for the 2000 games in 1993, the United States won the most medals with 93, while Australia came in 4th with 58. The games cost was estimated to be A$6.6 billion, the Games received universal acclaim, with the organisation, volunteers, sportsmanship and Australian public being lauded in the international media. Bill Bryson from The Times called the Sydney Games one of the most successful events on the world stage, admit there can never be a better Olympic Games, and be done with it, as Sydney was both exceptional and the best. These were the final Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch and these were also the second Olympic Games to be held in spring. The final medal tally was led by the United States, followed by Russia, several World and Olympic records were broken during the games. With little or no controversies, the games were deemed successful with the rising standard of competition amongst nations across the world. The Australian city of Melbourne had lost out to Atlanta for the 1996 Summer Olympics four years earlier, the Oxford Olympics Study 2016 estimates the outturn cost of the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics at USD5 billion in 2015-dollars and cost overrun at 90% in real terms. This includes sports-related costs only, that is, operational costs incurred by the committee for the purpose of staging the Games. The competition venues, the Olympic village, international broadcast center, and media and press center, which are required to host the Games. The cost and cost overrun for Sydney 2000 compares with a cost of USD4.6 billion, average cost for the Summer Games since 1960 is USD5.2 billion, average cost overrun is 176%. In 2000, the Auditor-General of New South Wales reported that the Sydney Games cost A$6.6 billion, many venues were constructed in the Sydney Olympic Park, which failed in the years immediately following the Olympics to meet the expected bookings to meet upkeep expenses. In the years leading up to the games, funds were shifted from education and it has been estimated that the economic impact of the 2000 Olympics was that A$2.1 billion has been shaved from public consumption. Economic growth was not stimulated to a net benefit and in the years after 2000, in the years after the games, infrastructure issues have been of growing concern to citizens, especially those in the western suburbs of Sydney. Proposed rail links to Sydneys west have been estimated to cost in the order of magnitude as the public expenditure on the games. Although the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony was not scheduled until 15 September, among the pre-ceremony fixtures, host nation Australia lost 1–0 to Italy at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which was the main stadium for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. The opening ceremony began with a tribute to the Australian pastoral heritage of the Australian stockmen and it was produced and filmed by Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation and the home nation broadcaster, Channel 7. This was introduced by a rider, Steve Jefferys

38.
Kate Carnell
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Anne Katherine Kate Carnell AO is an Australian businesswoman and former Liberal Party politician, who served as the third Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory from 1995 to 2000. Carnell was born on 30 May 1955, in Brisbane, Queensland and her parents owned a small accounting business. As a teenager she struggled with anorexia and was sent away to recover at Sydney Hospital and she battled the illness for four years. Heading back to Brisbane after her hospitalisation, Carnell returned to her studies and she married husband Ian Carnell in July 1977 and together they moved to Canberra, arriving August 1977. She bought her own business in Red Hill in 1981. She owned and managed the pharmacy until 2000 and she was the inaugural chair of the ACT Branch of the Australian Pharmacy Guild, serving in the position between 1988 and 1994. as well as National Vice-President of the guild between 1990 and 1994. Carnell joined the Liberal Party of Australia in 1991 and was elected to the second ACT Legislative Assembly in 1992 and she became Leader of the Opposition in 1993, succeeding Trevor Kaine. After winning 7 of 17 seats in the 1995 ACT election, the government was re-elected in the 1998 election. Bender died instantly when she was struck by a one kilogram fragment of steel which had been thrown about 430 metres across Lake Burley Griffin by the force of the explosion, the Coroner cleared Carnell as Chief Minister of any personal responsibility. The Coroner did find in his report that the Government had turned the implosion into a public circus, the public was invited by the Government to attend and witness the event, resulting in the largest crowd in Canberras history, in excess of 100,000. The Coroner found that the Government had been cavalier in its attitude to the warnings from a health union about the dangers of some aspects of the proposed implosion. The Coroner summarised that, the evidence on this topic leads me to conclude that Carnell was poorly briefed and advised on this subject matter, the quality of the reply to the HSUA was sacrificed in the interests of speed and expediency. In October 2000, Carnell resigned, pre-empting a no-confidence motion in relation to cost over-runs in the Bruce Stadium redevelopment project. The project had a $27.3 million budget, of which $12.3 million was provided for by the ACT government, however, the project eventually cost $82 million, and was solely funded by the government. An ACT Auditor-Generals review found that the projects $27.3 million cost estimate had not undergone proper assessment, the review also found that while private financing had been included in the project budget, no funds had been offered or provided by the private sector. Carnell resigned as Chief Minister on 17 October 2000, before the motion was moved against her. She was replaced as Chief Minister by Gary Humphries, after resigning her post as the Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, Carnell has worked in a variety of positions. She made a bid for election to the National Roads

39.
Football at the Summer Olympics
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Association football has been included in every Summer Olympic Games as a mens competition sport, except 1896 and 1932. Womens football was added to the program in 1996. Football was not included on the program at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, however, sources claim that an unofficial football tournament was organized during the first competition, in which an Athens XI lost to a team representing Smyrna, then part of the Ottoman Empire. According to a source, this is an error which has been perpetuated in multiple texts, tournaments were played at the 1900 and 1904 games and the Intercalated Games of 1906, but these were contested by various clubs and scratch teams. Although the IOC considers the 1900 and 1904 tournaments to be official Olympic events, they are not recognized by FIFA, neither recognizes the Intercalated Games today. In 1906 teams from Great Britain, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and France withdrew from a competition and left Denmark, Smyrna, Athens. Denmark won the final against Athens 9–0, in the London Games of 1908 a proper international tournament was organised by the Football Association, featuring just six teams. The number of rose to eleven in 1912, when the competition was organised by the Swedish Football Association. Many of these matches were unbalanced, as evidenced by high scoring games. All players were amateurs, in accordance with the Olympic spirit, the National Olympic Committee for Great Britain and Ireland asked the Football Association to send an English national amateur team. Some of the English members played with clubs, most notably Derby Countys Ivan Sharpe, Bradford City F. C. Harold Walden. England won the first two official tournaments convincingly, beating Denmark both times, in the 1924 and 1928 Olympic games, the first South American teams entered the competition, Uruguay and Argentina. Football returned to controversy at the 1936 Berlin Games, the German organisers were intent on the return of the game to the Olympic movement since it guaranteed income into the organisations coffers. The Italian team intimidated a referee, peru scored a contested victory over Austria in overtime, with a fan invasion of the field at the very end. The Austrian team asked for the result to be annulled, FIFA agreed, the Peruvian team refused and left the Olympics. As professionalism spread around the world, the gap in quality between the World Cup and the Olympics widened, the countries that benefited most were the Soviet Bloc countries of Eastern Europe, where top athletes were state-sponsored while retaining their status as amateurs. Between 1948 and 1980,23 out of 27 Olympic medals were won by Eastern Europe, with only Sweden, Denmark, for the 1984 Los Angeles Games, the IOC decided to admit professional players. Since 1992 male competitors must be under 23 years old, and since 1996, players under 23 years old, with three over-23 year old players, are allowed per squad

40.
Manuka Oval
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Manuka Oval is a sporting venue in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It is located in Griffith, in the area of that suburb known as Manuka, Manuka Oval has a seating capacity of 13,550 people and an overall capacity of 16,000 people, although this is lower for some sports depending on the configuration used. The area on which the ground is situated has been used for sport since the early 20th century and it has since undergone several redevelopments, most recently beginning in 2011. Currently, Manuka Oval is primarily used for cricket and Australian rules football, the ground was previously also used for rugby league and rugby union matches, but there are now more suitable venues in Canberra for those sports. As a cricket ground, Manuka Oval is the venue for the ACT Comets and the ACT Meteors teams. As an Australian rules football ground, Manuka Ovals primary tenant is the Eastlake Football Club, the ground has also hosted occasional home matches for teams in the Australian Football League, most notably the North Melbourne Football Club and the Greater Western Sydney Giants. The oval was originally a park known as Manuka Circle Park. The park and nearby shopping centre were named after the Leptospermum scopariums Māori name, there was a push for the park to become an enclosed oval starting in 1926 by various sports groups. Work began on Manuka Oval to erect a fence, along with improvements made in 1929. The field had previously used to casually play rugby league. The first cricket pitch was played on in April 1930, the Bradman Pavilion, the ovals main stand, was constructed in 1962 in honour of Sir Donald Bradman. In 2004, Manuka Oval celebrated the 75th anniversary of its formal establishment, the first cricket match to be played at the oval was on Easter Monday,13 April 1930. In 1992, the ground hosted its first One Day International match between South Africa and Zimbabwe as part of the 1992 Cricket World Cup, but otherwise remained largely unused for top level cricket. The ground is home to the Canberra Comets, who played in the Mercantile Mutual Cup from the 1997–98 season to the 1999–2000 season, the team now plays in the Futures League. The venue sought to host its first Test match in the year 2013 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the city of Canberra, the ground hosted the final of the 2014–15 KFC T20 Big Bash on 28 January 2015. Manuka Oval was the ground of the Manuka Football Club, an Australian Capital Territory Football League club, from 1928 to 1991. The merged club, which retained the Eastlake name, continues to play games at Manuka Oval. The oval has served as a venue for Australian Football League matches since 1998

41.
Scotland national rugby league team
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The Scottish national rugby league team represent Scotland in international rugby league football tournaments. Scotland are not regarded as a test nation, though its foundations may date back to as early as 1904, the team formally began in 1995, making them the newest international rugby league team in Great Britain. In their first match they played Ireland, losing narrowly, since then, Ireland has become the teams main rival, the two teams having played each other many times in their short histories. Scotland have also played the United States, France and Russia amongst others, in 2000 they qualified for their first ever World Cup, but failed to make an impact, losing all three of their group matches, however, their biggest losing margin was just 12 points. In 2008 they beat Wales over two matches to qualify for the 2008 World Cup, Scotland play in a dark blue strip, similar to the nations football and rugby union teams, with blue shirt, shorts and socks. A blue and white shield with a thistle, the Scottish emblem, is the teams badge, the shirt has rarely been significantly changed, although in the early days of the team, white was also used on the shirts. As of 1 June 2016, the team is ranked ninth in the world, behind all of the nations, neighbours England, Ireland. In the Rugby League European Federation, Scotland are ranked fifth behind Wales, englishman Steve McCormack is the teams coach, having coached since 2004, with Danny Brough captaining the side. It could be argued that the foundations for the Scottish team began in 1904, on 5 April 1904 England played an international match against the Other Nationalities, a team of Welshmen and Scotsmen, in Wigan. Of the twelve players who played for the Other Nationalities team two of them were Scotsmen coming from Northern Union clubs, including captain George Frater, after 80 minutes the Other Nationalities had beaten England 9–3. The team carried on for two years, playing England in 1905, losing 26–11, and in 1906, drawing 3–3. The team was revived, most notably in the early 1930s. Both Scotland and Ireland had been developing rugby league in their respective nations for several years and this was especially true at student level, with a Scotland student team having played regularly since 1987 and having competed in the 1992 Students World Cup. Both Scotland Rugby League and Rugby League Ireland arranged a match on 13 August 1995 at the Royal Dublin Showground in Dublin, however the Rugby Football League provided no financial support to either team. Luckily the Scotland team managed to get sponsored, and the money was used for the ferry crossing, the Scotland squad was largely made up of players who had played in the student squads, but a few professionals were also included. A new location was found but it was half a mile away from the ground. The match was looking like it would be scoreless at half-time until just before the break, after the break Scotland hit back, Sean Cusack scoring Scotlands first ever try. Gavin Manclark then scored to propel Scotland into the lead and this did not last long though, as Leo Casey scored for Ireland in the 55th minute

42.
France national rugby league team
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The France national rugby league team represent France in international rugby league tournaments. They are referred to as les Chanticleers or less commonly as les Tricolores, the team is run under the auspices of the Fédération Française de Rugby à XIII and is largely made up of players from Super League and the Elite One Championship. The French rugby league team first played in 1934 on a tour of England and they have taken part in all World Cups, twelve in total, with the first being held in 1954 in France. They have never won the title but finished runners-up in both 1954 and 1968 and these are often considered the glory years of French rugby league as from the 1950s to the 1970s the team were strong and regularly beat Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain. In 2006, the Perpignan based team Catalans Dragons entered Super League Europe, despite improved professionalism, France finished 10th in the 2008 World Cup in Australia. The team reached the quarter-finals of the 2013 World Cup where they were knocked out by England, currently the team is ranked fifth in the world. In Europe alone they are ranked second, ahead of Ireland, Scotland and Lebanon, on New Years Eve 1933, England and Australia played in Paris – the first game of rugby league football in France. The match was one-sided, with Australia winning 63-13 in front of a crowd of about 5,000, French rugby union players, disgruntled that France had been suspended from the Five Nations Championship, formed the Ligue Francaise de Rugby à XIII on 6 April 1934. Jean Galia, a rugby union international and champion boxer, led France on a six-match tour of England in 1934. The national teams first game was in Paris on 15 April 1934, by 1939, the French League had 225 clubs and the national side won the 1938–39 European Rugby League Championship where they became the first French team in any sport to beat England at home. The game of rugby league suffered in France during the Second World War, some players and officials of the sport were punished, whilst the total assets of the rugby league and its clubs were handed over to the union. In 1949, they became the first French sporting team to win at Wembley Stadium, in 1951 France embarked on their first ever tour of Australasia, coached by Bob Samatan and led by the legendary chain-smoking fullback, Puig Aubert. Their flamboyant style of attacking rugby attracted huge crowds. When the two met for the first Test, the match became the first all ticket international to be staged at the Sydney Cricket Ground. On Saturday 30 June 1951, Australia secured a hard-fought second Test victory over France in Brisbane by 23 points to 11, the third Test took place at Sydney Cricket Ground three weeks later before a crowd of 67,009. Late tries from Duncan Hall and Brian Davies could not prevent the Kangaroos from suffering an embarrassing 35-14 defeat, France played 28 matches during the three-month tour, winning 21 matches, drawing twice and losing just five times. In November 1951, France met Other Nationalities in an International Championship match at the Boulevard, Other Nationalities won 17-14 but the match centred on the behaviour of Edouard Ponsinet, who was involved in most of the violence that happened at the game. The Other Nationalities were down to players at one stage, with Arthur Clues being the most serious casualty

43.
A-League
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The A-League is a professional mens soccer league run by Football Federation Australia. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the primary competition for the sport. The A-League was established in 2004 as a successor to the National Soccer League, the league is currently contested by ten teams, nine based in Australia and one based in New Zealand. It is known as the Hyundai A-League through an arrangement with the Hyundai Motor Company. Seasons run from October to May and include a 27-round regular season, the winner of the regular season tournament is dubbed premier and the winner of the grand final is champion. This differs from the major football codes in Australia, where premier refers to the winner of the grand final. Successful A-League clubs gain qualification into the competition, the Asian Football Confederation Champions League also known as AFC Champions League. Since the leagues inaugural season, a total of six clubs have been crowned A-League Premiers, the current premier and champion is Adelaide United, who finished first in 2015–16 as well as winning the 2016 A-League Grand Final. A national round-robin tournament existed in various forms prior to the formation of the A-League, few clubs continued to grow with Sydney Olympic, Perth Glory, and the newly established Adelaide United the exception in a dying league. In April 2003, the Australian Federal Government initiated the Independent Soccer Review Committee to investigate the governance and management of the sport in Australia, the A-League was announced in April 2004, as a successor to the NSL. The competition start date was set for August 2005, by June 2004,20 submissions had been received and a month later 12 consortiums sent in their final bids for the eight spots. Three bids were received from Melbourne, two each from Sydney and Brisbane, one each of the remaining preferred cities and a bid from the New South Wales Central Coast city of Gosford. Each club was given a five-year exclusivity deal in its own market as part of the leagues one-city and this was intended to allow clubs to grow and develop an identity in their respective region without local competition. On 26 August 2005,16 months after the demise of the NSL, on 20 March 2007, it was announced that Wellington Phoenix would replace New Zealand Knights from the start of the 2007–08 season. Both Gold Coast United and North Queensland Fury joined the league in the 2009–10 season, on 12 June 2009, Melbourne Heart was awarded a license to join the 2010–11 season. On 1 March 2011 North Queensland Furys A-League license was revoked for financial reasons, on 29 February 2012, Gold Coast United also had its licence revoked. On 4 April 2012 it was announced that a new Western Sydney-based club, Western Sydney Wanderers, in January 2014, Melbourne Heart was acquired by the City Football Group and was renamed Melbourne City ahead of the 2014–15 season. The regular season runs mainly during the Australian summer, from early October to April of the following year, the competition consists of 27 rounds, with each team playing every other team three times

The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional competition in the sport of Australian rules …

In 1924, Footscray, the premiers of the VFA, defeated Essendon, the VFL premiers, in the Championship of Victoria. The result played a large part in Footscray, Hawthorn and North Melbourne gaining entry into the VFL the following year.

Gold medallist Nancy Johnson (centre) of the U.S., raises her hands with silver medallist Cho-Hyun Kang (left), of South Korea, and bronze winner Jing Gao (right), of China, during the first medal ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games.